


I Needed You to Know. Once.

by Writeonthrough (Schroederplayspiano)



Category: Pitch (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, First Kiss, Love Confessions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-18
Updated: 2016-11-18
Packaged: 2018-08-31 15:37:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8583988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schroederplayspiano/pseuds/Writeonthrough
Summary: As the Padres finish their season, love confessions are shared when Mike finds a quiet moment alone with Ginny.  Inspired by/based on the scene in ‘The Office.’





	

Cool evening air greeted Ginny when she pushed the heavy door to the Padres’ conference-turned-party room and stepped outside. She had done it: she had finished her first season as the first female pitcher in the major leagues. She had made it through it without too much drama or glaring mistakes, all things considered, and every last one of her teammates had finally accepted her as one of the boys.

She had everything she hoped for.

A light breeze blew through the inside concourse of the San Diego Padres stadium and Ginny closed her eyes as the wind rushed over her. She could finally breathe. A small smile appeared as the breeze ruffled through her knee-length dress and through her hair.

“Planning your next grand escape?”

Her eyelids flew open at the sound of Mike Lawson’s voice. She pivoted to face him, relieved to fine a twinkle in his eye and a hint of a smile on his face.

She couldn’t help playing along, “How did you know?”

A somber demeanor replaced his smile. He stepped closer to her. “I know you.”

“Hmm…” The twinkle in Mike’s eye somehow transferred to Ginny. It added the finishing touch to her already glowing appearance: A simple, but elegant lilac dress, hair full of curls that trickled down her back after it gathered together in a twist, and a sparkling diamond bracelet gave her an extra pop . She couldn’t let herself register his seriousness, insisting on resuming their teasing. “You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?”

 _She’d like to think that_ , too, if she was honest with herself.

Mike scoffed, his small smile returning. He took another step closer to her. “I know you were standing here, realizing you’re able to breathe for the first time in months.”

Somehow, Ginny caught her jaw dropped and closed her mouth before the reflexive action could be noticed. “That—That’s,” Ginny’s gaze dropped to her fingers which were fiddling with the folds of her lilac dress. “Entirely possible.”

He watched a blush disperse over her cheeks with awe. The mere sight of Ginny Baker was arresting. And when she stumbled over her words and played nervously with her dress, Mike had trouble controlling himself. Relief accompanied each word he managed to speak coherently, “I felt the same way after my first season in the Majors.”

Mike even found her incredulous expression mesmerizing. “Really?”

“Yes.” He answered her joke with seriousness. “Really.”

Ginny dropped her dress and pointed at him. “I didn’t realize you were another black, female pitcher in the league.” She dropped her finger and leaned forward, “My mistake.”

“Yeah,” Mike chuckled and shook his head, “How could you have missed that?”

Her eyes sparkled when she joked back, “I have no idea.”

A comfortable silence fell between them. Unlike so many of the comfortable silences they shared during their phone calls, they could now stare at each other. He caught her gaze, and once he did, she was unable to tear herself away from him. Her breath caught at his intensity, but her mind tried to focus on other things: like, like…how good he looked…and, and…what he was doing to her—no, she meant—what he was doing out here…and how good he smelled…and, and—why was he out here with her?

“You’re here to kidnap me, aren’t you?” She quirked an eyebrow. “To take me back to the Padres’ end of season party like a good teammate?”

“I. Would. Never.” He promised sincerely. “I told you I’m not a very good teammate. Plus, you’ve earned your right to breathe.”

She answered with a proud head nod, “Thank you.”

Their exchange didn’t settle her racing mind, however. The more it reeled with possibilities and questions, the more their comfortable silence became uncomfortable.

Apparently, he felt the changed too and sought to rectify the situation. “Hey—I want to—can I talk to you about something?”

Ginny eyed him suspiciously, registering his sudden nervousness, and tucking her chin as she did so. _Since when did they need to ask to talk to each other?_

“Aha!” She pointed at him again and resumed her teasing. “You are here to take me back in. I knew it, Lawson.” Her sigh even teased him. “I trusted you…And after everything we went through, too—”

“I’m in love with you,” Mike’s declaration pierced through the breezy air, pined it down, and stilled it.

Ginny froze in the stagnate air. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. Her heart stopped. Her mind stilled, making it impossible to comprehend anything.

Mike, meanwhile, couldn’t focus. His heartbeat quickened and took over his entire being, echoing in his head. His breathes came out in short puffs, his mind racing with thoughts.

An eye twitch restarted her mind. “What?”

He tilted his head in way that suggested she knew exactly what he had just declared, giving no notice that she could have since she lost all essential parts of her brain function. “I’m really sorry if that’s weird for you to hear, but I needed you to hear it. I just—”

“What are you doing?” She asked, her mind filling with the magnitude of repercussions his words could potentially have on their world. “What do you expect me to say to that?”

Mike’s racing thoughts began to slow at her acknowledgement—her words giving him something to focus on. Rather than worrying about the repercussions, however, he addressed the question directly. “I just needed you to know. Once.”

“Well, I, um, I—”As deep breathes returned to her, she drunk the image of him in—unable to avoid his attractiveness now: His dark hair and piecing eyes which were full of love. The way his blue sweater perfectly matched the exact color of their team’s without being a cliche. How one simple whiff of him made her lean in closer.

She stepped back, her expression begging him to understand “I. Can’t.”

“Yeah…” Before Mike’s head dropped, Ginny caught a glimpse of the heartbreak etched on his face.

Her chest tightened even as she sucked more air in. She’d never seen a crestfallen Mike Lawson before and it was a sight she wished never to see again. She stepped towards him. “You have no idea…what our friendship means to me—”

He rapidly shook his head, cutting her off. “Don’t do that,” he spoke like he really was the person who knew her better than anyone—as if his words came from deep within her rather than from him. “I don’t want to do that. I want to be more than that.”

“Well, I—” If he knew her better than anyone, surely he knew all the reasons why she couldn’t…surely he knew it wasn’t just about her rule regarding dating teammates, or the team in general, or their sacred dynamic of pitcher and catcher, or the sacred game of baseball—this was about women in general, her friends, her team, and her heart, and her losses, and—oh, god, she couldn’t lose Mike Lawson. “I. Can’t.” She said in a firmer tone.  
  
He looked up at her second denial, overwhelming her with the raw emotion on his face. It was odd, really, how the the metaphorical concept of a heart breaking could actually form on someone’s face. The realization had just as much as an effect on Ginny as the three words he announced earlier did: every word of comfort or assurance or explanation she could give him blanked in her mind. She was left with, “I’m really sorry if you misinterpreted things…” was all she could say. “It’s probably my fault.”

“Not your fault,” Mike insisted, any control he had left over his expression fading, revealing how deep his emotions went. “I’m sorry I misinterpreted our friendship.”

If she looked at him any longer, Ginny knew she would lose herself in him. She made sure to take in as much of him as she could she tore herself from him; empathy, sorrow, and regret filling her expression, once again pleading with him to understand her reservations.

Whether he did or not, she couldn’t tell, for she quickly glanced down at the ground and fixed her focus on a single spot. He must have realized how much of his feelings were exposed on his face, for he soon covered it and turned from her, walking slowly away.

She wanted to follow him, to explain, to comfort him, to do something to mend their relationship—but she couldn’t move. As the breeze picked up again, and rushed through the stadium’s empty concourse, it didn’t return peace to Ginny. Instead, it made her run away—desperately, in the opposite direction—in search of something, somewhere she could breathe again.

* * *

Mike couldn’t leave the stadium. And he refused to go back to the party. Without a destination, he just wandered, walking around the ballpark in silent despair.

I can’t. That’s what she kept telling him…telling herself. The realization somehow clicked in the midst of his moping, and perked him back up: she didn’t say she didn’t want him or that she didn’t feel something for him. In fact, he knew—more than ever before—that she did. She wasn’t saying no to him. Ginny Baker was saying no to their situation, to breaking her own rules, no to risk, to change, to anything that would make her already complicated life more complicated.

As Mike put the pieces together, as he thought about every personal decision he’d watched her make and the consequences that followed, her refusal made sense to him. If he really knew her as well as he thought he did, he would understand why she felt like she had no choice in her refusal.

Which, he did.

But, he understood something else: that some things were worth risking everything for. That she was worth for him and when life got complicated for her, he wanted to make things simpler for her. And when he couldn’t, because some things in life are just complicated, he wanted to experience them with her, not away from her.

And suddenly, there she was, in front of him. His wandering around the stadium had led him right to her. Ginny Baker sat on the edge of the bullpen wall where their first pitches and catches were exchanged between them.

He loved that she ended up here. He loved that her light lavender dress was now covered with dirt as she sat on the dusty wall. He loved that she didn’t care if her pretty dress got dirty. He loved that she found sanctuary in the same place he did.

He loved her.

Ginny’s heals taped nervously on the bullpen wall, another needed distraction in addition to her brother’s voice on the phone. “I don’t know, Will. He’s my Mike. He’s my catcher. He’s my—”

_He’s my Mike._

_He’s my catcher._

Her words repeated in Mike's head as he announced himself with shuffle of his feet in the sand. Her attention snapped at a noise across the bullpen. An odd sense of panic and relief rushed through Ginny when she saw him and she muttered her way off the phone, “Yeah. I have to go. Ok—”

The cell phone clicked off and she placed on the wall’s edge before jumping off. Her hands nervously wrung together she watched him come closer.

“Listen. Mike—”

He reached for her and silenced her. His arms curved around her and closed the distance between them. The next instant, his lips captured hers, sparkling a fire within their bodies. He continued to enfold her in his arms, his touch electrifying her arms to rise and encircle his neck.

They swayed on the spot, absorbed in each other. Mike deepened their kiss and Ginny responded with equal passion. As their lips mingled together, a new feeling of belonging rushed over Mike. Her hands drifted from his neck to his face, and brushed through his thick beard, producing a small moan in the back of his throat. She melted further in his arms at the sound, savoring the moment before her hand fell to his chest, breaking them apart.

Mike held on to her, though. His fingers curved around her lower back, his arms refusing to release her. He stared at her, mesmerized at everything about her, still reveling in her touch, her taste.  
“Ginny,” he whispered breathlessly. His whisper of her name refocusing her on him. Their eyes met and he said, “I love you,” for a second time.

She found tranquility at his second declaration. Instead of tensing, she relaxed. Instead of losing her breath, it strengthened it. And instead of her heartbeat quickening, it steadied. “I love you, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> I would love to hear from you in the comments! Thanks. ♥︎ I hang out on tumblr as writeonthough.


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